Former Barcelona manager Tito Vilanova has died this week from his battle with Cancer, which is a cruel blow to the world of football. The man led Barcelona to the La Liga title in 2013 and was well respected by all at after taking over from Pep Guardiola. A nice guy who left an impression on all he crossed paths with, was only 45 years old and he had a lot more to give. Just shows how life can be so short sometimes.

In better news, David Moyes is goooooooooooooooooone. Poor guy, he copped a lot of flack and from all accounts he seems like a decent fella so I won’t dwell on his sacking too much. Hope he can find another job sometime soon, but it will be pretty raw for a while! All hail Ryan Giggs. Temporary I hear them say. 4 wins could change that...

Liverpool have been the toast of English football for the last month but looking at it from a different perspective, you could argue Crystal Palace have been just as impressive! 5 wins on the trot and scalps such as Chelsea and Everton who at the time were well in the race for their respective title challenge and top 4 trophy. Palace was given no hope in hell of staying up at the midway point of the season and were the shortest odds to go back down in the Championship. Then along came Tony Pulis. The Messiah. He has never been in charge of a team that has been relegated. And once again he is going to prove that worth. Palace was sitting in last place when he took over and they were spiralling downwards like you wouldn’t believe. Their current 5 match win streak has left them safe from relegation with 3 games to spare. If someone had told any Palace fan that this would be the case after the start they had, they would walk away laughing. The Tony Pulis effect. He has been able to get the best out of his players and exactly the right time of the year. Players like Jason Puncheon were playing like men who were just there for the pay packet and couldn’t care less about the outcome. That has all changed now. The mindset was set on survival, and survive they have done. Mr Pulis will be more than happy with his charges and for him, it is job done.

Liverpool vs Chelsea

You can’t look much further than this blockbuster. Will it be a game for the ages, worthy of potentially crowning the new champions? I’m afraid this one could turn into a fizzer if Mourinho gets his way and fields a weaker team. In saying that I can see why he would do this. The loss to Sunderland was really the killer blow. It left Chelsea a significant gap behind the Reds and left their fate out of their hands. Even if Chelsea win against Liverpool they will be being more helpful to Man City than to anyone else. With a huge Champions League do or die semi midweek, you can’t blame the man for resting key players against a presently rampant Liverpool side. With Eden Hazard and Samuel Eto’o already under injury clouds, it would be surprising to see them back against the Reds, and the likes of Ramirez and Cahill who have big workloads may be rested. Considering the squad depth Chelsea has they should be looking to still put out a decent performance. Players will be pressing for a spot in the midweek match against Atletico Madrid and for a potential Champions league final.

The Reds players will be looking to do what they have been doing for the last 11 league games. Win. They don’t need any added motivation other than if they win this match they will have one hand on the Premier league trophy and a second hand waiting eagerly to latch on. Doing it for Steven Gerrard seems to be the go to phrase for the Kop and like I’ve said before he probably deserves one. Deserving one and winning one are two different things, but potentially this is the time they come together. If Suarez can keep up his imperious form and can get some able support from the likes of Coutinho and Sterling then they should pose a number of threats to the Blues backline that could have their minds elsewhere. No Jordan Henderson means the Reds lose their box to box ‘Aaron Ramsey’ type player but they will be capable to fill that gap with Lucas or Joe Allan. Whatever formation they field, if Suarez gets going then you can shut the gate because it’s a foregone conclusion.

Prediction: Everything here points in the direction of the Reds for me. Unless they really start feeling the title chase pressure, which they haven’t so far, then they should really get going against the Blue. Liverpool 3-1.

Further Predictions:

Southampton vs Everton – Draw
Fulham vs Hull city – Fulham
Stoke City vs Tottenham – Draw
Swansea vs Aston Villa – Swansea
West Brom vs West Ham – West Brom
Man United vs Norwich – Man United
Sunderland vs Cardiff City – Sunderland
Crystal Palace vs Man City – Man City
Arsenal vs Newcastle - Arsenal